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Dunwarr
Bleak and foreboding, the Dunwarr Mountains are a collection of blizzard-pounded peaks, sharp ridges of gray slate, and gnarled clusters of twisted evergreen trees. Between the snowy crags lie high meadows of heather and gorse, fed by swift-flowing, icy brooks. Apparently home to nothing beyond the occasional goat and jackrabbit, the Dunwarr are the last place one would expect to find an empire. However, as travelers venture through the tumbled rocks of the foothills and follow the twisting trails up into the high valleys, signs of a long-lost civilization begin to appear. On close inspection, cliffs appear too straight and sharp edged to have been cut by wind and rain. What first look like sheep trails turn out to be paved with tightly-fitted cobblestones. And some of the craggy outcroppings start to eerily resemble grim, weatherworn faces. Eventually, if one follows a particularly well-worn track east of the Howling Giant Hills, they will enter a narrow vale leading up into the Dunwarr. At its head, bracketed by the roaring foam from twin towering waterfalls, stand the Gates of Thelgrim, heart of the Dwarven kingdoms in the Dunwarr Deeps. The Mountain Gates Shaped in the silhouettes of two mighty Dwarven warriors standing back to back to repel surrounding enemies, the banded and reinforced steel doors rise nearly two hundred hands high. Crafted from bands of hardened steel joined by hundreds of rivets and stamped with runes of endurance, the Gates of Thelgrim clearly bear the dents and scars of dozens of assaults as testament to their indestructibility. What cannot be seen are the other, hidden defenses wrought into the gates and the surrounding cliff faces. Murder holes and disguised firing ports allow the unseen Dwarven guardians to reap a bloody tally from any attacking force with crossbows, ballistae, and Dwarven firebombs. Hidden sally ports allow the garrison to launch devastating counterassaults and raids, and—at the last—the water from the falls can be redirected to flood the entire valley. The Dunwarr Dwarves maintain a light garrison at the Gates, for even a few score soldiers can hold the gates for weeks, and Thelgrim is merely a day’s march away. Bradha the Shield commands the garrison, and also inspects the caravans journeying up from Frostgate to barter with Thelgrim’s merchants. A grim and experienced veteran of several conflicts, she holds that her first and foremost duty is to the safety of her kingdom. Thus, she is more than willing to bar entry to any suspicious characters, but she also pays well for any news of nearby threats. Thelgrim Once through the Gates, travelers find themselves in a vast stone receiving hall, lit by cunningly wrought shafts that bring light from the surface and are protected by even more hidden defenses. Besides the doors to the garrison quarters and storerooms, the only exit is a second pair of massive doors at the far end of the hall. These lead to the Hearth Road; the underground passage that stretches seven leagues to the heart of Thelgrim. The Hearth Road is wide enough for five wagons to travel abreast and intricate runework runs the length of the walls; a history of the Dwarven people for those with the ken to read it. Every inch is smooth and polished, more reminiscent of expertly-worked metal than rough stonework. This is the gift of the Dunwarr Dwarves, the ability to not only work a material, but hear it. They know the temperature of molten iron from just a glance at it, understand the size and shape of an obsidian vein by laying a hand on it, and can feel exactly where to lay a chisel to leave a perfectly flat stone face. They are masters of the forge and quarry, and nowhere is this mastery on display more than in Thelgrim. Thelgrim is where one can start to truly understand the scale of the Dunwarr Deeps—the network of caverns that run through the bones of the Dunwarr Mountains, and domain of the Dunwarr Dwarves. The Hearth Road opens into a vast cavern filled with towering stalagmites and outcroppings of living rock. Once the road ran into the cavern without interruption, but that was before the Third Darkness, when Gehennor sent his dragon hybrids along the Hearth Road and into Thelgrim’s heart. Since then, the dwarves have sunk a deep chasm across that side of the cavern, and only a single arching bridge links the Hearth Road to the city. At the far side of the bridge stand more gates, and bulwarks topped by a strategic collection of crenelles and parapets. Only when one passes this final portal have they entered the city of Thelgrim. The gates are matched by similar defenses on the north end of the city that lead out into the Deeps, and each is abutted by one of the two barracks of the Warriors’ Guild. The southern barracks are commanded by Skirmisher Captain Lyssa Svensdottir, the soldier who oversees all military action outside of the mountains. The northern barracks are commanded by her brother, Guard Captain Einalf Svensson, who oversees the defenses within the Deeps and the Palace Guard, which defends King Geirmund Ragnarson. The Heart of the City Originating as a simple intersection of tunnels in one of the Deeps’ larger caverns, the Dunwarr capital of Thelgrim started as a series of camps full of weary refugees during the Years of Exile. Eventually, cloth tents gave way to stone walls and the camps began to transform into a fragile new civilization. Millennia later, it still stands as a stony, ever-growing testament to Dwarven resilience. Thelgrim exists within a massive underground cavern, eternally lit by hundreds of crystal starglobes laboriously crafted by the Runescribes’ Guild. From afar, their sparkling radiance makes the city look like a gigantic geode. Within the city’s walls, the starglobes light the streets with a dim, gentle glow. Human visitors find the low light bothersome, which tends to amuse the locals to no end. In Thelgrim, the buildings tend to be dug into the rock of the cavern walls and stalagmites as often as built freestanding on the cavern floor. The buildings are organized in rings, running outwards from the city center. At Thelgrim's heart, a towering aqueduct redirects the flow of an underground river into a Dwarf-crafted lake—as well as providing fresh water for the inhabitants. At the far end of the lake stands Dunwol Kenn Karnin, “The Fortress inside the Mountain.” From within the thick walls and defensive battlements of this fortress within a fortress, King Ragnarson rules from Tanngnoster's Throne. The Throne and the throne room it occupies sit at the very depths of Dunwol Kenn Karnin; a final fastness for the dwarven people in their darkest hours. On the opposite side of the lake from Dunwol Kenn Karnin sits the Guild Hall, its imposing facade displaying one ornately decorated pillar for each of the ten guilds that make up the heart and soul of Dwarven society. Unlike the sober quiet of the King’s fortress, the Guild Hall is a raucous and lively place. The heads, sub-heads, and representatives of each of the guilds spend hours in spirited debate; each trying to further their own guilds’ interests and expand their authority. More than once these debates have devolved into angry brawls that force the king’s own representatives to haul the guild members outside and toss them into the lake to cool off. The Runeforge Home to the venerable Runescribes’ Guild, the Runeforge houses the Dwarves’ collection of known dragon runes. These guilders built their massive, cruciform hall partially into the cavern walls at the edge of Thelgrim. Here, the runescribes can gaze out over the entire city—a not so subtle reminder that they, more than anyone, are responsible for the preservation of the soul of Dunwarr's culture. Each of the four immense wings of the hall serves a separate purpose. The south wing, where the entrances are located, hold their offices and meeting chambers. The west wing contains the forges, casting molds, and foundries where new runic items are cast and created. The north wing houses two copies of each known dragon rune, cast from an appropriate metal and hammered into rock slabs. And the west wing, buried in the stone of the cavern wall and pointing towards the molten heath, protects the complete records of dwarven history, etched onto beaten copper sheets. Beyond the maintaining of Dunwarr history and etching dragon runes into arms and armor, the runescribes are also charged with attempting to discover new runes or rediscover those lost with the destruction of the Karok Doum. None take this charge more seriously than Dorgan Hammerfist, the Master Scribe. In fact, it is said that he is seriously considering hiring a band of adventurers to travel to the Molten Heath and explore the ruins of the Dwarves’ ancestral cities in the hopes of finding some ancient runecraft. Hall of the Ancestors Located even deeper beneath the heart of Thelgrim, the Hall of the Ancestors is the repository for the Dwarven dead. Within the hall are seven hundred and thirty-four unsealed sarcophagi, the temporary burial grounds of the newly deceased. The corpses are left to decompose in those temporary tombs for seven hundred and thirty-four days; then, the bones are transferred into the miles-long collection of antechambers that are used—in the loosest possible sense—to join the dead with their families or guilds. The only Dwarves who are given prestigious, individual burials are the monarchs of Dunwarr. They are interred in large, elaborate, and elegant tombs of sealed metal and stone. These miniature mausoleums not only house the royal remains, but relate the legends of the leaders through artistically rendered tableaus and intricately engraved poetry. The Dunwarr Guilds Dwarven society in the Dunwarr Deeps is primarily organized around ten civic guilds. Each guild oversees a different aspect of Dwarven life, and they have become the Dunwarr Dwarves’ primary civic institutions for countless generations. The Masons’ Guild constructs new buildings and maintains venerated structures within the mountains. Concurrently, the Miners’ Guild digs ores and precious gems, and excavates new tunnels and chambers for the Masons. The Smiths’ Guild forges tools, weapons, and other useful items, while the Artificers’ Guild crafts toys, clever mechanisms, and beautiful jewelry. The Brewers’ Guild makes stouts and ales, and also oversees the growing of grain above ground (and sometimes grudgingly mills it into bread instead of beer). The Merchants’ Guild oversees the selling of these goods both to Dunwarr communities and the outside world. The Warriors’ Guild stands ready to protect all the Deeps against any threat, while the Rangers’ Guild patrol the mountainsides and hunt dangerous beasts and bands of marauders in Dunwarr lands. Meanwhile, the Explorers’ Guild sends scouts and emissaries (and sometimes spies) into other lands to know what the rest of Mennara is about. Finally, the Runescribes’ Guild maintains the knowledge of inscribing runes of power. Not all Dwarves belong to one of the Guilds, though nearly every Dwarf aspires to join their ranks. Even the king or queen is linked to the guilds, as each is a former guild leader elected by the vote of their fellow Guildmasters. Though they swear to renounce their former loyalties upon their ascension, no Dunwarr ruler can avoid a little favoritism. There are, however, numerous other groups in Dunwarr society that strive for a Guild’s power and prestige. By ancient law there can only be ten Guilds at any one time, but nothing stops a Guild from being broken and a new one rising in its place. Groups like the Alchemists’ League, the Fireforgers, and the Vengeance Seekers constantly scheme to supplant one of the existing Guilds, who in turn work tirelessly to maintain their authority. Hadranhold Deep in the heart of the Dunwarr, Hadranhold started out as a lonely watchpost built into the towering Mount Valborne. Over the centuries it has grown into a fortress, and then a city. From the surface, all one can see is the original stone tower and battlements built into the mountain's peak. The Rangers' Guild maintains the tower, which also serves as their unofficial headquarters. The rest of Hadranhold lies deep below the surface, linked to the watchtower by a single stone staircase of thousands of steps. The city proper has been carved into the caverns of the Deeps in much the same manner as Thelgrim. Hadranhold, however, lies close to the molten heart of Mennara. Members of the Smiths’ and Artificers’ Guilds have moved here in numbers to take advantage of the abundant heat for smelting and forging, and the lower Hadranhold, unlike the cold and lonely upper fortress, has become a bustling city of skilled artisans. Firestone Furnace Deep below Hadranhold sits an immense, ancient kiln forged of an unnamed alloy. The kiln stands in the center of a lake of boiling magma, and only the wondrous nature of its construction keeps the so-called Firestone Furnace from melting into slag. The Dwarves of the Smiths' Guild reach this marvel of preternatural steel across obsidian bridges reinforced with inlaid runes that ward off the ferocious heat. The Furnace allows the Smiths' Guild to forge ores into wondrously pure ingots, and even craft the hardened steel that can resist dragonfire and makes up the Gates of Thelgrim. The Furnace is kept running night and day, year-round, overseen by The Greathammer Hafnir Irontamer. Horrifically scarred and hairless, Hafnir has had almost every inch of his stout body seared or burned in his labors. His level of ceaseless dedication is about more than just pride, however. Should the Furnace be left empty for too long, it could heat beyond its own melting point and collapse into the fiery magma below. Such a tragedy would have horrible ramifications for the Smiths' guild, and for the entire Dunwarr kingdom. Duldor Deeps Far from the halls of Thelgrim, deep in the solid granite of the mountains, lies the Duldor Deeps: the home of many members of the Artificers' Guild and the unofficial Alchemists' League. Within its stone halls, the Artificers' Guild tests new and inventive machineries, their constantly evolving collection of traps and locks, and deadly siege weapons. They also suffer the presence and (at times unwelcome) collaboration of the upstart Alchemists’ League members, who are forever experimenting with new alchemical mixtures, developing new acids and toxic gasses, and manufacturing their infamous fire mugs and firebombs. Though these developments are for the benefit of the entire Dunwarr kingdom, they have also forced the Duldor Deeps to be far removed from other Dwarven cities. Chief Alchemist Freja Bjornhart and her husband, Master Artificer Stron, oversee the Duldor Deeps. They fell in love after decades of working closely together, though their relationship was taboo from the very beginning. The Artificers' Guild feared that Stron’s loyalty to his wife would weaken their dominant position, and the Alchemists' League saw Freja’s love for her husband as essentially fraternizing with the enemy. Both received stern admonishments to avoid the other, which the Bjornharts dutifully acknowledged and immediately ignored. In the years since, neither organization has been willing to acknowledge that Freja and Stron’s marriage is what has kept the Duldor Deeps running relatively smoothly. Instead, the Guild and League have taken to vehemently arguing over which organization the couple’s eventual children will join. Labyrinth of Deurg Many centuries ago, during the Dwarves’ initial explorations into the Dunwarr Mountains, a team from the Miners’ Guild made the fateful decision to follow an unusual seam of ore toward the surface of the mountain. The seam ran through a mass of black, obsidian-like stone, and the Smiths' Guild determined that the ore, when smelted, created a shining metal of unparalleled strength and resilience. After meeting with the guild elders, Master Miner Deurg redoubled the miners' efforts. It wasn’t long into the excavation that the miners began to question the dig. They were having trouble tracking their progress within the mountain—an entirely new phenomena for the Dwarves and their abilities to determine their location underground. They would dig for days but feel as if they hadn’t moved. They would turn to follow the seam but swear they were still pointed in the same direction. They would feel as if the seam were about to thin or end, but instead find the largest deposits to date. Eventually they started breaking into unexpected caves and chambers, all covered with razorsharp outcroppings of the black stone, and shot through with strands of the strange metal. Then, the whispering started. The miners had been hearing it for weeks before they realized that it was more than just the building excitement in their own heads. “Dig,” the voices urged them. “The most valuable lodes lie just ahead. Dig up toward me…” Reports of the whispers were the last things to leave these mines. Search parties sent from Thelgrim found the entrances to the tunnels caved in. The dwarves dug through the cave in, only to find no trace of the miners inside. When word reached the Deeplord, she ruled that all ingots of the strange metal be returned to the mine, which was to be sealed forever behind runes of warding and binding. All exploration of the workings the Dwarves now refer to as the Labyrinth of Deurg was forbidden on pain of death. Though the proclamation has remained in place for hundreds of years, occasionally a band of foolhardy adventurers becomes seduced by the promise of the mythical ore discovered there. So far, all who have managed to discover a new entrance into the Labyrinth have vanished within its depths forever. More concerning are the rumors that persist that a young blacksmith spirited away a portion of the metal before it could be returned to the Labyrinth. The stories say that he forged a deadly blade and went adventuring, only to be lost in the Woods of Woe. Deep Elves Though most Elves live in relative harmony with the world and the races around them, some members of the Elven race have turned their back on their cousins. The goals of these Elves are to more fully embrace Emorial’s mission against the forces of the Ynfernael and to redeem their name from its sullying by Malcorne, the Corrupted One. Called Deep Elves for the elaborate networks of tunnels they inhabit, they were drawn underground because of the proliferation of Ynfernael gates beneath the surface. Now these Elves generally only emerge above ground to hunt for new sources of Ynfernael power or when their crusade against the otherworldly demons forces them to do so. Their endless crusade has drained them of any dregs of mercy or compassion, however, as the dark powers they use to fight the Ynfernael slowly poisons their souls. Many adventurers who stray into these underground lairs, which are very common in Dunwarr, are lucky to escape with their lives, for the Deep Elves do not suffer trespassers or the inquisitive. The Frontier The name given to the north and west stretches of the Dunwarr mountains, the Frontier is where the caverns of the Deeps narrow and shrink, and the land begins to slope down to the frozen, ice-locked coast. Here, many of the Dwarves still live above ground, making their living as farmers, hunters, and foresters. Though their kin describe them as foolhardy and a little odd for wanting to live on Mennara's surface, these Frontier Dwarves tend to enjoy the thin, clear light of the sun and the touch of frosty air on their cheeks. To the west, the alpine valleys are warm enough in summer that the Dwarves can grow oats, wheat, barley, and other cereal crops. Members of the Brewers’ Guild construct terraced fields and study granaries alongside fortified manor houses built into the rocky cliffs. Though the Dunwarr Dwarves do a brisk trade with the baronies for food, the farms of the Frontier would be enough to feed the nation if the Brewers' Guild stopped using the best grains for beer. The Northern Coast As one ventures into the northern parts of the Frontier, even the sparse Dwarven farms and outposts dwindle away. The rare inhabitants—most often herders or hunters—make their living as best they can by tending to flocks of bighorn sheep or herds of mountain goats, or bringing down the deer, mountain Leonx, and burlback bears that hunt in the high crags. Nearly every one of these Dwarves belongs to the Rangers’ Guild. Unlike most other Guilds, the Rangers feel that if a Dwarf is brave enough to live beyond the safety of rock and stone, then they’d best join the Guild and learn how to protect themselves. Most of them go for months or more without seeing another Dwarf. However, in the deepest depths of winter during the solstice, most try to make the trek to Hadranhold for the Guild’s traditional week of feasting and fellowship known as Wintersmeet. References # Realms of Terrinoth Category:Location